I am new to strict dieting. I have tried to cut out refined carbs with little success, but I am so sick of it now, I’m going hardcore warfare.

I have had little to no carbs for the past two days (I’m basically eating nothing but chicken/beef, bell peppers, onions, garlic, celery, eggs, and avocados), and also started diflucan (150mg every other day… but I decided to take it the first two days based on when I tried to get rid of this crap before… last year I went through two rounds of diflucan, and both round were daily dosing… still didn’t completely get rid of it… and then it just came back.)

The no carbs, in addition to the extreme die off, is killing me. So I saw on the strict diet list that you can have some complex carbs – like oat bran and quinoa. Today (I’m on 3rd day), I went out and got some oat bran. I ate some for lunch and… I’m feeling itchy now. Not sure if it’s coincidence or what… but is it possible the oat bran did it?

Also in the oat bran… I mixed in almond butter (made of pure ground almonds, nothing else), a couple spoonfuls of plain yogurt, and 1/8 teas stevia. I have had the yogurt before and it didn’t bother me.

A confounding variable… In the middle of the night last night, I woke up with my belly feeling like it was on fire, pounding heart, and alternating between hot flashes and chills (I’m in my 20s… so it’s not menopause 🙂 ). I think it was due to the zero carb thing… so I panicked and had a small glass of milk to soothe my stomach and a couple (tiny) handfuls of cheerios. So… it could possibly be that, but the itchiness happened so close to the oat bran, and I had only a small amount of milk/cheerios, so….. I don’t know. I woke up this morning feeling so good, so I was somewhat relieved thinking that I hadn’t totally set myself back with the milk/cereal.

Ugh. I hate this. Please let me know if any of you have trouble with oat bran, and if you do, let me know what you did about it. I need some carbs. I’ll note that I think I have leaky gut based on what I’m reading. I have a lot of food sensitivities, and I started having bizarre/random allergic reactions (eyes swelling shut) several months ago. They happen so frequently and randomly that I can’t pin point what’s causing it.

The beef can set you back because it takes 1-2 days to digest whereas chicken/fish take hours to digest. The beef and pork can cause constipation.

I don’t know where you read that you shouldn’t have carbs, but you need them to be healthy…the yeast feeds on everything strict diet or not.

Oat bran does contain gluten so this is why you should be very careful with it as a food item. On my food list there is an asterisk next to it, which means it can cause problems. You need to learn about testing foods properly and what side effects to look for.

As far as milk and cheerios, that shouldn’t be on the diet as you may know…

For a great replacement for oat bran, I recommend cream of buckwheat which has a similar texture.

Buckwheat is an excellent substitue for oat bran. But oat bran itself is also pretty safe. It doesn’t contain gluten by itself, but it is usually produced in a gluten environment. Even people who have coeliac can usually safely consume one cup a day. Bobs Red Mill Oat Bran doesn’t contain gluten.

Whatever you do, just try it a little bit in the beginning and add more day by day.

I was going off the strict diet list on the main website… and it lists oat bran. I did buy the gluten free (bob’s red mill).

Thanks for the tip on beef. I try to mainly eat chicken… that’s the easiest anyway. And the list you provided was very helpful also.

I’ll be trying to get my hands on some buckwheat flour…

Stevia… I am reading that it potential affects hormones? I’m concerned because my symptoms are extremely sensitive to hormones, and I also have other conditions related to hormone levels. It seems like anything I do that might mess with them will mess with them….

There are 3 forms of buckwheat; buckwheat flour used for baking, cream of buckwheat (bob’s red mill) which is like oatmeal (also can be used for baking), and buckwheat groats which is similar texture to quinoa/rice.

For stevia, I recommend trying it out or atleast using it for special cheat items or dessert. I haven’t had any problems with it and its seen as generally safe from over 90% of the people I have seen on the forum (over the 2.5 years I have been on here).

Thanks Raster… every time I see a post from you and Able on this forum, I perk up. It is really nice to have people on here who take the time to do this.

I do have another dilema now. I am losing hope because my husband and I are going to try to have a baby soon. I am going to finish the diflucan before then and probably get in about a week of herbs from my acupunturist that stimulate my immune system. I have chronic fatigue and those herbs have helped so much before (it is a capsule containing these: radix rehmanniae, cortex eucommiae, fructus corni, radix aconiti latera preparata, cortex cinnamomi, colla cornus cervi, rhizoma pinelliae). The first time I took this supplement, it caused some die off, so I think it will be good to do. I’ll also continue taking fish oil supplements and a prenatal vitamin, and probably some extra vitamin c, and probiotics.

When we start trying to have the baby… that’s when I get cautious… and I will severely restrict what I put in my body in terms of supplements/extra vitamins. I am even nervous to do supplemental probiotics (I’m hoping kefir/yogurt will help). I am wanting to do a candida-conscious diet, but, obviously, I can’t be too restrictive while pregnant. Plus, what little will power I’ll have will probably be toast when I get those prego cravings (I’ll still do my best, but ugh… I just remember what it was like and it was so hard).

Do you have any advice for someone who will probably be pregnant soon? I just recently had two back to back miscarriages (the drops in hormones both times made my yeast symptoms fairly severe)… so I think getting pregnant will happen quickly (hopefully), but… we’ll see if this one sticks. I think getting pregnant actually helps my symptoms, but I’m betting it’s because my immune system function drops… not because the yeast actually goes away.

I could use some help with kidney/liver flushes too. I tried going on milk thistle before doing all this to prep my liver and I got a kidney infection, plus had some liver pain. Not sure if it flushed a bunch of junk out and clogged my kidneys or what, but milk thistle is out.

Sorry to be so needy; I’m trying to hang in there, but I’m overwhelmed and then adding the trying to have another kid on top of that is throwing me for a loop.

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